Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-05-11
DAILY HERALD.
COUNTERFEIT MONEY.
Two LabOrers Strike 8
Bogus Gold Mine
IN AN OLD. OLb VAULT,
A Gold Necklace and Cross
Several Loaded Revolt
yers.
COUNTERFEIT MONEY.
IN AN OLD. OLb VAULT,

Mr.. Louis Mesmer yesterday employed
two laborers to clean out an oldsvault il
the rear of the United States Hotel, OIL
Requena street. This vault has been in
existence about twenty years, and some
time ago connections were made with
the sewer, but the connection was about
four feet above the floor Of the vault.
The sewer connection was not made with
the basin, consequently any heavy ma
terial which was dropped into the basin
settled to the bottom. The work.
men yesterday thought they had
found valuable gold mine
when one of them thrust in his shovel
and drew it back with what appeared to
be full load of $3.50 and So gold pieces.
These workmen had been told by Mr..
Mesmer that they could have whatever
they found so for time they thought
they were placed above want for. the
rest of their lives. The coin it was true
looked rather dirty, but they attributed
this to the fact that it had been in the
filth and water for so long. After un--
earthing a goodly sized pile they sounded
some of the pieces and found that the
coin was all counterfeit; but the imita-
tion was good. II new and bright any
one Of the pieces could have been passed
readily 81 an pnsuspe citing person, and
even q close exaia alton would have
failed to have revealed much differences
between it and the genuine article. The |
pieces were dated 1873 and had been
struck off by die very perfectly cut i
and the milling was as perfect as on the |
genuine. The word liberty in the cap
Ct the head On one side was plain and |
perfect, and the, thirteen stars were |
even and clear cut. The eagle on the |
other side was also clearly cut and the |
impression was scarcely perceptibly |
lighter on one side than on the other.
The lettering Quilted States of America |
p d." was as regular end perfect as IL |
struck off at the mint. The only thing |
about the coin which was noticeable |
was its lightness and incapahility of
giving out the ring of gold. On close
examination it was found that the coins |
had been formed of lead, the impression
made by O die and the completed coin |
plated thickly with gold. The probabil-
tiles are that the counterfeiter who
dropped them in the vault became
frightened, and no other way of dispos'
ing Of the coin presenting itself, he had
deposited them in this spot. The work.
men stated that the coin was 10 a bunch,
as il it had been wrapped up and the
covering rotted off. Later, a long gold
chain with q cross attached was un.
earthed in the vault, and inspired by
this genuine find the laborers hurried to
complete their work. Every once in II
while the shovel would strike hard
substance, and the article would be
dragged forth with the greatest haste.
Several loaded revolvers, rusty and of
different shapes, were unearthed and
put away with less curious ar
ticles. Besides these, "a num-
ber of pieces ofgood coin, both gold and
silver were found and pocketed by /
the untiring laborers. They were I'M
able. however, to complete the excava'
ton yesterday and will probably be at
work early this morning. There is
probably very little chance of finding
the counterfeiter at this late date, but
from the quantity of the spurious coin
found yesterday--between $500 and
S400, the bogus die must have been very
prof able to those who owned it. Mr.. |
Mesmer kindly gave HERALD reporter
one of the counterfeit coins which he
wishes was good.
Further developments are expected
to-day.